New Design article: Elves

[Ashardalon]

Yep, that explains a few things.
Elves as we know them are now known as Eladrin. We've seen one of the teaser pics named eladrin wizard, and one of the playtests had an eladrin wizard. Why eladrin? I rather suspect they wanted a name that evokes Eldar without being Eldar, for various reasons. Maybe the eladrin as we know them will be know by a different name now (leShay?). The MM equivalent are probably grey elves or high elves as presented in the PHB.
The elves presented here are, as said in the article, wood elves. Those are the guys with +2 Strength and -2 Intelligence, and favored class ranger, relegated from a side note in the MM to a full-fledged core race.
The drow, or dark elves, continue to exist as well.

I'd certainly prefer the name eladrin where it is now, though.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

My guess on the relation between Eladrin and Elves are that they both come from the Fey originally.

 

[ruleslawyer]

This development makes me happy. It gives us a playable, down-to-earth, humans-in-funny-suits elven race while simultaneously allowing the Tolkien fans to live the dream of playing actual honest-to-goodness magically powerful, immortal, removed-from-the-world elves. It looks like my house rules brought to life...

 

[Masquerade]

My guess on the relation between Eladrin and Elves are that they both come from the Fey originally.

It does seem that way. Elves, eladrin, and drow could be different evolutionary descendants of some ancient fey race. The elves inhabit the forests, the eladrin the mountains, and the drow the Underdark.

I am quite impressed by this new offering. I can't wait to read about 4e's gno...err, halflings. I said halflings.

 

[iwatt]

Eladrin: Eldar
Elves: Avari

BTW, with third editions geratly empowered Druidic magic, Favored Class Druid made a lot of sense

 

[frankthedm]

It does make a bit of sence in the "points of light" model. This time the 'Elder race' is divorced from the material world. They have thier degenerate off-shoot, the elves, living in the material world, while their great empire lies Elsewere. The real world can slip into decay since 'the Uber Race' is too distant to save it.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

They never cut living trees, and when they create permanent villages, they do so by carefully growing or weaving arbors, treehouses, and catwalks from living branches.

Keeblers!

 

[Lancelot]

I'm liking it a lot. Physically robust, wise/perceptive, hardened outdoorsy warriors vs agile-but-frail, tightrope-walking lightweights? It's all good.

I'm also pretty happy with what I'm hearing about the eladrin. It confirms the eladrin are still in the game, their basic nature (uber-intelligent powerful "faerie lords") hasn't changed, and it gives them better definition. I'm a huge Planescape groupie, but I've always felt that eladrin were the least defined of the planar races. They're sort of like elves, you know, but... extraplanar.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I like the art and I love elves. Flavor text is always welcome, but man that is some of the most awkward heavy handed writing (specifically the first two paragraphs) I've read since Tolkien. I hope some editor gets in there and cleans that up so its easier to read. What a mess!

 

[fuindordm]

Yep, that explains a few things.
The elves presented here are, as said in the article, wood elves. Those are the guys with +2 Strength and -2 Intelligence, and favored class ranger, relegated from a side note in the MM to a full-fledged core race.
The drow, or dark elves, continue to exist as well.

I'd be really surprised if they gave them a +2 Str, though. +2 Dex still makes the most sense for elves of any stripe, and they did mention that Elves had access to Evasion.

Prediction for elves' racial abilities:

*+2 Dex, -2 Int
*Reroll perception checks
*Proficient in sword and bow
*+4 to defense scores vs. fey magic
*+1 CL for spells with the Plant or Animal descriptors
*Access to the Evasion and Nature Sense talent trees
*Stealth, Perception, and Survival are always class skills